Friday, September 30, 2011

Grilled Chili-Lime Steak with Chimichurri & Roasted Fall Veggies

I remember a few months ago when we were still exploring our new town, we passed a store and I remarked "What do you think they sell there?" The name of the store was Smart & Final. Was it a closeout store - your final chance to buy an item? Was it an auction place - all sales were final?

Of course, then that lead to a bigger discussion of how, when you move to a new place, you really have no idea what stores are just by their names. Many times they're named after original owners and not very intuitive. You really have to go in and check it out to figure it out - or ask a local who knows. After that tangent, I pretty much forgot about Smart & Final.... until I got an email asking me if I'd be interested in checking out an area grocery store chain called Smart & Final. Ah ha! A grocery store! How could I have missed that? Well, not to worry, I was about to get my chance to check it out as I shopped the store to create a beef recipe.

Turns out, Smart & Final is kind a warehouse club/restaurant depot hybrid. It offers larger packages of food for a better price - as well as restaurant/catering goods like chafing dishes, sterno and paper goods. Their Extra stores, like the one I visited, combine the warehouse/restaurant items along with typical household sized offerings of produce, meat, dairy and frozen foods. It's really quite a varied collection of things. What I was most pleased with was that I was able to find everything I needed for the recipe I decided to make all under one roof. That rarely happens. I usually find myself heading to at least 1 other store for some elusive item - the right herb or spice or something. But not this time. And everything was well-priced to boot.

You can check out a photo diary of my experience here.
And, of course, here's the recipe I was inspired to create:

About Me

I'm Amber, a 30-something writer with a passion for food, wine, travel and good books. I'm a transplant from the Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts (hence the name "Valley Writer") now living in Southern California with my husband and two cats. I love trying out new recipe ideas and visiting interesting places, and sharing the best new finds with my friends, family--and the world!